A collapsing house of cards: Liberty Steel, Greensill Capital, Credit Suisse and GFG – a total mess that could leave creditors billions out of pocket

^{Sanjeev Gupta Pic: Daily Mail Business}

Like a slow motion car crash the developing crisis for the British steel industry has taken on nightmarish proportions with creditors and workers potentially left holding worthless rust.

The opaque dealings of Dubai based Sanjeev Gupta’s businesses have begun to unravel threatening the future of a major chunk of our steel industry. His main source of finance for Liberty Steel – the David Cameron championed Greensill Capital - has gone bust leaving Gupta cash strapped.

^{Lara Warner}

Chain reaction

Greensill Capital’s demise has had a knock-on effect at a linked partner in finance in Geneva the bank Credit Suisse. The bank is facing a near melt-down firing several of its top management including their chief risk officer Lara Warner and slashing staff in a bid to stay afloat.

In Britain the main danger is to the 3,000 staff at Liberty Steel, the hundreds of workers linked to the firm along with the 2,000 people at GFK – the owners of the steel plants.

“Thousands of people and businesses rely on Liberty Steel for work,” said Ian Carrotte of ICSM. “For every steel plant GFK own there are a range of suppliers who are concerned over future orders and more important being paid for their services now. The main fear and I think is the accepted wisdom is there will be no Government intervention as they don’t trust Gupta due to the opaqueness of the steel firm’s ownership.”

The Government has already said no to a request for a £150m bail-out and part nationalisation but instead are expected to wait for administrators to be appointed at which point they could take control for a limited period in order to save jobs. Sadly that could mean suppliers may not get paid.

About ICSM Credit

ICSM Credit has more than four decades of experience as a credit intelligence group whose members gain inside information about firms in trouble allowing them to avoid bad debts and rogue traders. To join costs less than a tank of fuel - while at the moment there's a special free temporary membership offer during the Covid-19 crisis which gives access to free legal letters. ICSM also has an effective debt collecting service which has a global reach - ask for details from Paul.

For details about ICSM Credit call 0844 854 1850 or visit the website www.icsmcredit.com or email Ian at Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com on how to subscribe and to join the UK’s credit intelligence network to avoid bad debts and late payers. Follow ICSM Credit on FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube and Ian Carrotte on LinkedIn.

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For details for the work of the journalist Harry Mottram visit www.harrymottram.co.uk